El Mac has completed “Elation—Elegance—Exaltation,” a new mural in Philadelphia that centres on a young woman holding a rose, its bloom rising above her in a field of radiating contour lines.
Installed at 412 North 2nd Street, the work is part of Throughlines, Mural Arts Philadelphia’s citywide exhibition of new, restored and reimagined public works. It is El Mac’s first mural in the city. The Los Angeles artist, born Miles MacGregor, has long developed his portraits through tightly repeated, undulating lines that build form, movement and light across a wall.
For this Philadelphia image, El Mac drew on the city’s musical lineage while painting, listening to artists with local roots including Sun Ra, Lee Morgan and John Coltrane. The mural’s title comes from a prayer written by Coltrane for his 1964 album A Love Supreme, whose liner notes and accompanying poem frame the music as an expression of spiritual gratitude.
El Mac connects that devotional charge to the mural’s central image: a rose presented as a gesture that may be given or received. He describes it as a symbol of love and beauty, while the work as a whole considers creative expression and connection as forces that can strengthen belonging and mutuality.
The figure is based on Sy’Ana, a young Philadelphia artist and student in Mural Arts’ art-education programme, who posed for the mural. Her direct gaze anchors the composition beneath the flower’s expansive, near-cosmic halo, bringing the work’s larger reflections on love and faith back to an individual presence on the street.
“Elation—Elegance—Exaltation” was realised with Mural Arts Philadelphia, with support credited by the artist to Jane Golden, Sarah Kolker, Dever, Diana Gonzalez, Sy’Ana, Todd Bressi, Lisa Murch and Phil Asbury.
Images via @mac_arte on Instagram.